The government has
conducted rainmaking ceremonies in the past and has another one
scheduled for Saturday in an attempt to find a solution to its
energy shortage.

Zimbabwe needs about 2000
megawatts (MW) of electricity per day, but the country
only generates around 900 MW. Even when there is power,
electricity comes sporadically. Often, it's only available
between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time, Maxwell
Shumba, president of the ZimFirst Party, an opposition
party to President Robert Mugabe, told Business
Insider.

A
neighborhood in Lobengula West, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, at
night.Maxwell
Shumba

The prolonged periods without
power aren't just an inconvenience for the people of
Zimbabwe; they're also wreaking havoc on an already unstable
economy.

The blackouts are
"stifling business, healthcare and the quality of life for
Zimbabweans," Sam Amsterdam, the former media advisor
to Minister David Coltart (MDC-N) and former Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T), told Business
Insider.

"We're seeing a ZANU Party
(President Mugabe's party) unabated, cronyism run rampant, with
unreliable firms granted limited access to the industry," he
added, "and corruption festering from within government and the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, ensuring the days of
'business by candlelight' to be far from over."

The energy problems have
contributed to the deflationary environment that has
crippled the country since the US dollar was introduced in
2009 as a means of getting the country's
hyperinflation under control.

Zimbabwe's economy grew an
estimated 3.2% in 2014 after registering growth of 4.5% in 2013.
It's forecast to grow just 1% in 2015, according to the
World Bank. At that rate, Zimbabwe will grow at a rate well
below the rest of the sub-Saharan African region.

The World
Bank

On Friday, All
Africa reported the Infrastructure
Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) has raised a total of $45 million to
fund three power-generation projects in the country.

The bonds — which were floated
in 2014 but have yet to meet their $65 million target — are
designed to fund the repowering of three power stations in
the country. In addition, the government has been touting
a 250 MW diesel plant in the eastern city of
Mutare.

"Their frantic efforts to build
the much touted 250 megawatt electricity generation diesel plant
in Mutare will not help," Shumba says. "In fact it will just
increase the cost of electricity for consumers and an already
burdened economy."